A friend of mine charges £5 per item, but you can then have a certificate (If you're, say an electric guitarists then some venues (local council do's mainly) won't let you in without it). He says if you do a proper job it's hard to charge less than this. You're supposed to check all cables thoroughly along the length, undo all non molded plugs and check the screws. And more stuff like that. However, my friend is extremely jobsworthy about it. A brilliant quote I saw yesterday:

"Rules and regulations are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools"

So if you look at the HSE website they say basically that portable equipment must be safe. If you move it about all the time, then yes it must be tested, but if it sits on a desk without moving then it can be tested every 5 years and you yourself can look at it and check it for obvious problems every year.

As it impedes the means of extracting bucks out of you, giving
the UNI the capacity to induce many other kinds regulation
that may cause reactance amongst the many, thus the UNI
can conduct business as usual as their safety standards
have been upheld.

Putting the onus of PAT testing to the student removes the
UNIs admittance to guilt and much less susceptible to a law
suit in the event of failure.

;oDD

On a serious note however, I said you can`t PAT test your
own gear. Everyone else says you can, so look at it from a
legal point of view not a practical one.

actually, I was wrong, the training course is now 2 days.
You need to score over 50% on the exam to get a certificate of competency. (which means you still get it if you get nearly half the questions wrong!)

The sig between the asterisks is so cool that only REALLY COOL people can even see it!